Helene

To our wonderful friends, family and customers,

Thank you for the texts, messages, phone calls and check-ins. We’re all safe. For everyone that doesn’t know, our hometown was hit with historic devastating hurricane winds and floods. Our community is struggling. There’s no power, no gas, service towers are down, lives are lost and there’s an intense amount of damage.

It’s with a heavy heart and teary eyes that I wanted to update you with the status of Opie Way. Our factory, where we poured so many hours and all of our life savings to make sneakers in America, has been destroyed. Our machines, materials, inventory and most all things Opie were not spared from the flooding. I am completely heartbroken and not sure what the future holds for our brand - but more than anything - I feel strongly for everyone who was impacted in our community.

I want to thank everyone for believing in what we’ve given our lives to for the past 5 years. It was my dream as a kid to design shoes and it’s been an absolute pleasure to design (and make) sneakers in my hometown. I will forever be grateful no matter where we go from here. It IS completely possible to make things well in America.

We’ll keep everyone updated as we can get to the factory and have a better way to communicate the future. Please pray for Asheville and the greater Western North Carolina.

One more thing. That community we speak of reaches further than western North Carolina. Our amazing friends @hudsonshill have rallied a tribe to help us get through this life altering predicament. With help - we’ll rebuild something even better. If you’ve ever wanted to help us make sneakers in America - here’s a chance. I don’t like asking for things - but with your help I’m spreading the word - I’ll commit myself to building something BIG.

You can donate to our rebuilding efforts here. We were able to save a very small amount of inventory that we will be adding to our website soon. Sign up for our emails if you would like to know when it is listed. 

Love,

Justin